Day 41 and 42 - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in South Florida and the Keys

It is Christmas Eve morning and the wind is whipping through the palm trees.  We decided not to move the boat. In stead, we decide to call a cab to take us to Ft. Meyers Airport to rent a car to drive to Homestead, which is on the east coast of Florida, just north of the Keys.  Randy finally had time to install the new fresh water pump we shipped to Panama City.  He also cleaned and re-attached our ship’s bell that fell off during one of our rougher cruising days.  The cab came around 12:30 pm and after picking up the rental, we drove Alligator Alley to the Miami area, then south to Homestead.  We arrived at our good friends from Chicago, Chuck and Pam Schumacher at 4:30 pm.  Their house was decorated for Christmas and we felt very much at home.  They welcomed us with cocktails and a wonderful lasagna dinner.  It was great to see them and catch up.

 

We spent the night and in the morning worked on our blog.  We either have not had the time or a strong enough internet connection to download pictures to keep the blog up to date.  I do have notes for each day and eventually I write them up, select pictures, and post them to the blog!

 

The 4 of us drove to Islamorada mid-day to have Christmas dinner with Dan, Ellen and Meghanne Downs, more good boating friends from Chicago.  Meghanne loves to cook and she and her mom, Ellen, prepared a gourmet feast for us and several other friends of theirs!  There was bruschetta, turkey, stuffing, vegetable dishes, ham and beef.  Pam brought yummy deserts – ice cream cake, chocolate éclair cake and cookies.  Dan and Ellen’s house is on a canal off of Snake Creek and the setting could not have been more beautiful.  We missed our families and were very grateful to be welcomed into our friends’ homes in South Florida.  It was a Christmas we will never forget!